Thought I’d better ask for the first time before I go ahead
I kinda thought it was a bit much liquid. I’ll try 30%. What can go wrongLooks wonderful! The only thing I'd consider changing is the amount of water. The standard setting on soapcalc is calculated as a percentage of oil weight, but the forum consensus is thst it's better to calculate based on the amount of lye you use (the concentration of the lye solution you end up with). Your current calculation amounts to a lye concentration of 27%, which is relatively low. Such a low concentration will help slow down trace (if that's what you want), but can also cause morphing of the soap when it loses water during cure. I think most people on here recommend 30%-33%, although there are many exceptions in both directions and a lot depends on personal preference.
Hope this makes sense!
Good luck and happy soaping
Thank you so much for the detailed reply I meant it’s my first time asking for help for a recipe. I have been soaping for a year, still fairly new but have only had one salt soap not turn out. Of course there’s some that aren’t quite what I wanted for design but still nice.Am I understanding correctly that this is your first ever batch? If so, I think you're being pretty ambitious, to be honest.
Firstly, it's rather a large batch. I suggest making a batch that's around a quarter of this at first, or even slightly smaller. That way, if it doesn't go according to plan, you've not wasted so many ingredients. I have a nice small mould that takes around 500g/1lb of batter that I use for new recipes and new fragrance oils. You can however improvise a mould if you don't have a suitable one - my first few soaps were made in a plastic tub similar to a margarine tub, lined with baking paper.
Secondly, I agree that it's high in water. Try changing the lye concentration setting to 33%. (Rather than water as percentage of oils)
Thirdly, you seem to be using both fragrance and colourants, along with the extra additives. Can I suggest simplifying it a bit? If you really want to use both scent and colours, perhaps stick with a single colour throughout the whole batch to start with.
The soap recipe itself looks ok though, the numbers are all pretty good and should make a decent soap.
I'm slightly curious which units you were working with when you developed the recipe, since none of them are all in whole numbers down the row. Not that it really matters, I just tend to start with percentages, which I do in whole numbers as 0.01% or even 0.5% of an ingredient won't make any noticeable difference to the final soap in my opinion. It's also difficult to weigh out ingredients that precisely, so I always round to the nearest gram anyway.
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